Birds, Birds, Birds

Slugger spent much of the night using me as a pillow so when I got up this morning I needed to walk a little bit to try to lossen up. As soon as I walked out the door I noticed all the birds singing. So I grabbed my camera and took it with me on my walk. Who knew what a world there is out there so early in the morning!

When I got back, I told Mike he'd better hope I don't become interested in becoming a bird photographer as I'll need a much bigger lens....and of course a much steadier hand!

Here are a few of the birds I came across in my 30 minute outing.

Okay, here is a test for all of you. We can't figure out what kind of woodpecker this is. We found one in our book that looked like this but doesn't live in Florida. The red is just on the very top of his head.




Red Bellied Woodpecker



We don't know what the next two are either. But I liked them anyway.





Yellow Rumped Warbler



Tufted Titmouse


Cardinal



Eastern Bluebird



Well, from the looks of this, we need to get a more complete bird book!

Debbie
1/19/07

It's a Good Day

Recently Wazzu went in for her bi-monthly blood test and titer test. We got the results of the blood test back in just one day and all her organs are functioning properly. This news was really good!

But the titer test results take two weeks. We got word today that her titer has gone down. This is great news. Her numbers are still too high and the vet warned us that we still aren't out of the woods by any means. But we feel encouraged.

Of course the dogs were happy about the news because we had a little celebration. The dogs got some doggy chocolate and Mike and I each had a miniature dark chocolate Hershey bar.

And of course, Wazzu was SO happy because she got lots of hugs. YUCK! Oh she hates hugs. She's so glad that's over.

We're still smiling.

Debbie
1/18/07

Homosassa Springs Wildlife Park

Today we went to a wildlife park in Homosassa Springs.



It was an amazing place. Part of the park was contained - in other words the animals were in captivity. However, part of the park was in the wild where the animals were free to come and go as they wish.

Just as we arrived they were starting a presentation on Manatees. The ones they had in captivity were much smaller than the ones we saw in the wild. But it was very interesting to learn so much about them.

While the Manatees were in no way trained they did learn that when the guy gets in the water he would have carrots (where he got such large carrots I'll never know) and this seemed like a favorite snack for them. They came from hundreds of yards away to get these carrots. We never saw any Manatees in the wild stick their heads out so far.



We then walked over to the part of the park that was outside any gates where the Manatees were in total freedom. While we were watching a couple did come by and did a spin (which we hadn't seen before) and we were able to see their little front fins.



Back in the first Manatee area they had an underwater viewing area. There were hundreds of fish. These were all wild and could come and go as they please. The park did nothing to entice them in and doesn't feed them in any way. But for some reason they came by the hundreds.



From there we came across Lu the hippo. As you probably know, hippos are not native to Florida. Lu was originally brought here to be in the movies. Afterwards they decided he should stay here and back in the 50's he was made a Florida resident. He is quite the character and I think to entertain himself he would do silly things to make the people laugh.



From the day we got Slugger, Mike has always said that Slugger looked like a hippo. In an odd way, he does kind of look like Lu. Poor Slugger.

When we went around the corner to the bird area, Mike's jaw dropped. There were over a hundred Flamingos. For someone that knows so much about animals this was funny. He had never seen a real Flamingo and thought they were just some statue that all the old people in Florida put in their front yards! Too funny.



I had seen Flamingo before but had no idea they were so mean. They were fighting like crazy. And when they fight they are loud. I did find a couple that were staying out of the fighting and they were bathing and stretching.





The place where the birds were was totally open to the free world. There were probably 50 different species of birds. Most of them didn't belong to the park. They just came because the atmosphere and accommodations were so nice.

The orange color in the water around this Whistling Duck is the reflection from one of the Flamingos.



I had never seen a bird colored like this. It looked like it had faded. But I guess that's just how Roseate Spoon Bill looks.



One of the more interesting birds we saw (because it is something we hadn't seen before) was a Wood Stork.



In another section of the park they had some alligators. Mike wasn't impressed as these alligators were so SMALL compared to the one he now says tried to eat him. LOL So look at these and then double it and you'll get an idea of how big the one was that started to come towards him when he was kayaking.





This is just a very small sampling of what we saw today. This place was very large and had a lot of different areas with a LOT of different animals. We took almost 500 pictures. Bet you're glad I only shared these with you!

Debbie
1/17/07

Kayak Adventures

Today Mike decided he wanted to go kayaking. So we took the dogs for a short 30 minute walk in the morning to at least get the edge off them. This walk was like a walk in a jungle in the respect that the vegetation was jungle like and was so thick tht we couldn't see back in more than just a couple feet.

Even though we couldn't see much we knew we weren't alone. We discussed the fact that we were probably glad we couldn't see all the critters that were there with us. I know there were a lot of birds but we heard a lot of noises that definitely weren't birds too.

There were two lakes that we came across. They were totally still and very beautiful. From what Mike could tell they were probably old rock quarries and thus were extremely deep. On of them especially looked like a great swimming hole for Slugger but we didn't know if there were alligators there or not so no swimming here for the little guy.



The other lake had beautiful reflections in it when we went by.



Then it was kayak time. When Mike was checking out his kayak the guy said "Now you do know that there are alligators in the rivers around here, right?" Mike assured the guy he was aware of alligators in this part of the country. The guy then proceeded to give Mike a life jacket. As Mike got it he made the comment that there weren't any teeth marks in it. The guy said "Oh, if the alligator gets you he isn't just going to make a few marks he's going to eat every bit of you."

At first we thought this was a little funny. But then the guy continued on telling us that there are people living along the canal that feed the alligator and he is now about 14 feet long. We thought he was probably kidding.

So Mike got in the kayak and set out on his afternoon of fun.



To get out to the main river Mike had to paddle through one of the little side rivers which goes through the RV park. I went over to the little gazebo to wait for him to come by so I could get a few pictures. On Mike's way through the park there was a guy out on one of the docks. He yelled out to Mike to watch out for the 14' alligator at the end of this little river. Then we knew it wasn't a joke anymore!



As Mike was going out of sight I reminded him to take some pictures. Wouldn't you know, right at the end of the little river sat a HUGE alligator that was at least 14' long. Mike was trying to take pictures from afar! Then he started thinking that maybe he could get a little closer. WRONG. The second he went one inch closer the alligator got in the water. Mike took off as fast as he could paddle.



Shortly thereafter he was out in to the large river - the Crystal River. I really liked the pictures he took as they were from the vantage point of a kayaker which is really close to the water.



As you might expect, there were a lot of really huge houses along the river.



After being out on the water for about an hour Mike's back was really hurting him so he pulled over to walk around and stretch a bit. Here was his view from there.



After going for a bit longer he found a small side channel that he decided to explore.



He came across some very pretty little passages.



After going back out to the main river he found one of the HUNDREDS of canals that go off the river into neighborhoods. As you can see almost every house has a huge boat.



Mike did find that the birds were much more tolerant of people down near the water and let him get much closer than normal. He got within just a couple feet of this pelican.



Mike decided that he doesn't know the finer points of kayaking though as his arms got so tired they were shaking so much that he couldn't hold the camera still enough to take a picture.

At one point while he was just kind of drifting so he could rest his arms. He looked down in the water and noticed a really huge rock. He thought it must be really large for him to be able to see it out in the middle of the water. As he leaned over to look at it more closely it started to swim away! Turns out he was right over a Manatee.

Mike had three things he wanted to do/see while he was in Florida. Seeing a Manatee was one of them. He can certainly mark that off his list now.

One down. Two to go. Stay tuned.

Debbie (for Mike)
1/16/07

Ouch

Today Mike offered to take me on the hike he and the dogs had done all last week. It's a great place to the dogs as there is never anyone else there. It's a 15 square mile island. There is one road onto the island however it is fenced off. There is a small space you can squish through to get onto the bridge. So all five of us squished through the little narrow space on the side of the fence. From there on we had the whole island to ourselves.....and a lot of nature. Of course the girls got to be off leash the entire time.

Remember a couple days ago when I told you about the fire ant hills. Well on this island there are a lot of those hills. If you don't know any better it just looks like a mound of dirt....kind of like a large mole hill.



However, the second you step on one (or disturb it in any way) thousands and thousands of fire ants explode out. Mike hit one with a stick as we passed it so I could get a picture. Sorry the picture isn't all that good.



Okay, on to more pleasant things! At the beginning of the hike you could see the lake that is on one side of the island. It is a huge lake but we only saw a couple boats.



It was a hot day so the dogs decided to take a dip as soon as they got off leash. Sparkie wanted to chase birds but mostly ended up just pointing and cocking her head.



In the beginning was a very large field. I just happened to look up and see a beautiful Red Shouldered Hawk sitting atop a tree.



As I tried to walk closer he decided to move on.



After the field we came to the trail. It was so pretty.



On one side was a thinly treed forest and on the other side was a beautiful swamp. We could hear a lot of very interesting sounds coming from in there but there was so much brush that we couldn't see much in there. Too bad as we could noises in the water and in the trees that sounded very interesting.

As we got to the end of the island we saw numerous Anhingas in the tree tops.



They would fly around quite often - I suppose they weren't too comfortable with the dogs swimming so close to where they were perched.



We let the dogs swim at the end of the island where the lake and the river meet. We figured the water would be cold enough there that there wouldn't be any alligators there. Slugger loved being off leash for a while and of course especially enjoyed getting to do a lot of swimming. Wazzu didn't want to be left out of the swimming once the big stick came out.



Mike was busy throwing sticks for the dogs and I was kept very busy looking at all the different wildlife. This was a very active spot. Behind us just a bit was a very large marsh. It was full of ducks and other birds. Suddenly the bird dog side of Sparkie appeared. She went full speed running into the marsh chasing some birds. The problem was some parts were shallow and she could jump through the water and suddenly it would be very deep and as she jumped she would go way under the water. We got a little worried as she went out a long way. Mike called her back and she immediately turned to come. But it took a lot of work and was very strenuous. Now suddenly the Whippet side of her came out and she was sure she was going to drown and she started crying. Mike really thought he might have to go in to save her. Oh what a sight that would have been. Fortunately, after much effort and splashing, she made her way back.

While the dogs were swimming I saw this grebe taking off. I was fortunate enough to get the splash in the picture as well.



As we walked back on the far side of the island we were right next to the river. This afforded the opportunity for more wildlife. I can't identify this bird from this picture but I liked the way the sun was showing through his wings.



As we got to the dam there were some concrete posts sticking out of the water. There we saw some Anhingas.



And more rare, we saw an immature White Ibis.



Across the river on a wire rope were a whole line of pelicans.



As we got to the dam there were probably 30 or more Turkey Vultures. They were sitting all along the dam. I was busy taking picture of them and once in a while a couple of them would fly off.



Then suddenly about ten of them started flying in circles above me - only probably about 20 feet over my head. As always, Wazzu is very protective of me. She must have thought they were a danger to me as she started chasing them away and growling at them. As soon as she got them all far away from me she came running back to me to make sure I was okay. What a sweet girl.

As we were about 20 minutes from the end of the hike the girls went into a little field next to the path. Not a good idea as within just seconds Wazzu was standing still with her paw up. This always means stickers. But unfortunately these weren't just little stickers They were the very sharp and stinging Prickly Pear buds.



Wazzu had numerous buds in her paw both on the top and the bottom. Mike is always prepared for this and in his pack he carries some special type of pliers. As we was trying to get them out of his pack Wazzu started getting scared and tried to get one of them out with her mouth. All she ended up doing was getting her tongue and mouth stung and she started shaking her head around. When Mike tried to pull out the buds out Wazzu let out some really big cries. It must have really hurt as Wazzu has a very high pain threshold and rarely cries. The rest of the way back she walked very slowly and gently.

Just as we were getting in the car I spotted a Great Blue Heron watching us.



We went home for a quick lunch and dropped of the dogs so that we could head over to Fort Island Trail Park which is only about two minutes from the RV park. This is the park we happened upon a couple days ago quite by accident and ended up seeing some Manatees.

Today was an even better day! While watching the water looking for Manatees we saw an Anhinga steal a fishermans bait.



It was way to big for him to eat. He struggled with it for about half and hour before giving up and leaving it in the water for someone else to fight with.

Then a Great Egret landed on the dock railing hoping for his turn to steal some bait when the fishermen weren't watching. It seems like that is favorite pastime of many of the birds.



We were just about to give up on seeing any Manatees when suddenly it was like a Manatee highway. Over the next 15 minutes we saw 10 - 12 Manatees. And they were so close and so easy to see. I got a lot of really good pictures but I'll just share a couple of them with you.

Most of the Manatees went by in groups of two or three. They were just barely under the water and the sun was shining so it was easy to see them. It's hard to tell from these pictures but these Manatees were HUGE.



While most of the time they stayed under the water as they went by us a few times they came up for air just as they swam by us.



They all were very smooth and most had propeller cuts on them - very sad. But this one must be very old as it had barnacles all over it.

Mike and I were both very excited to have seen so many Manatees - and so close up! Boy, people are paying big bucks to go on these boats that hold about 40 people to go out and hope to see Manatees. I'd say we got pretty lucky to have found this spot!

Well, time for Wazzu's daily squirrel stalking outing!

Debbie
1/15/07